Opinions please. . .

[Mainiac]

Today, I was asked by a guildie to make what I though was to be an item for their own use, once catching up to said guildie, I was given materials to make several (more than 5) of the same item, an item that sells very well in the bazaar in the 10k range.

I made them 1 and explained that I don't do production work except for my own bazaar trader, returning the one item and rest of the supplies.

I do make things for guildies at cost almost anytime, but this request struck me wrong, and left me questioning myown values.

Here is where I'd like your opinions, am I being too protective of my (our) skills by not doing production work? Would you have made the lot of them? Where do you draw the line?

[Joltz Panacea]

Basically it all boils down to how much time it's going to take me to do the combines for my guildie.

I have no problem clicking combine 5 or 10 times for a guild mate/friend, even if the item is for resale. Time wise, it's easy enough to click 5 - 10 combines. I draw the line on an item that requires multiple subcombines, i.e. haversacks, even if all the items have been provided.

On the other hand, if the haversacks are for their own personal use, I'll do the combines and subcombines for no charge, the only caveat is that I will do it at my leisure, when and if I have the time.

[LadyAnnaAnna]

In this siutation I think you are fully justified in what you did, and I likely would have done the same. Had the said guildie asked me to do it for production, I may have, for a price. Since, as you said you had been under the impression it was to be one item for his own personal use, it was almost like he had been trying to use you to get rich quick, which, IMHO, is not right, guildie or no.

[Tweedledea]

I don't think it would have been unreasonable to ask for one/two of the combines as a fee.

Occasionally people have farmed components for me in the past - I did the combines and we split the results to sell individually.

[Jarak_akn]

Thats what I would have said, the first sucess is for you, the second sucess is for me, then we repeat :-)

Jarak.

[Lothay]

Moved this to the PSR, since it's not really appropriate for General.

[Cantatus]

My rule of thumb was that I'd always be willing to do a combine for a guildie or good friend for me. Anything aside from that and they'd be considered a customer. I might give them a deal or let them pay me later, but if they're going to profit on my tradeskill, I want a cut. Consider it like real life. If I built computers, I'd give a friend of mine a deal. If my friend bought all the parts and asked me to make him another for him to sell, I'd want in on the profits.

So no, I don't think you did anything wrong.

[Kakg]

In my view you did the right thing, you did one for them but no more. If they had said that the combines for sale then you could have negotiated a price with them but if they want to make money from tradeskills and not pay for the combines then they need to skillup their own toons just like the rest of us.

[Mainiac]

Thank you all for the replies, nice to know I have not totally lost my sanity doin' tradeskills.

Sorry for posting in wrong place, I though it fit best there, but here works too, since I did ask for opinions, and we know how that can go.

[Thicket Tundrabog]

I agree with the general trend of comments.

Doing combines is very dependent on the situation. If it's a friend who has helped me with tradeskills, such as giving me components, then I probably would do it for free.

If it's a guildie, and the item is for personal use, I always do the combine for free.

If someone is taking advantage of my skill to make stuff that he can sell, and I've received nothing in return, then pay or go away.

Thicket

[Verdandi]

No, I don't think you're wrong at all to charge.

If a friend or guildie wants a combine for something they will use for themself (or an alt of their own) then I do it for free, no problem. If they or anyone else wants a combine for something they intend to sell for profit, I ask for a third of the retail value of the item upon success, nothing for failure. If it's not a friend or guildie but they are going to use it themselves, I take into consideration the value of the item and the difficulty they'll find in getting someone else to make it. (For example, it would be silly to ask for a third of the value of a GoD smithed weapon when they're so expensive and smiths who could do the combine are so common.) And of course there are exceptions sometimes. If the guildie is selling the item to get something else they badly need and doesn't make such requests often, I'll do them for free anyway.

That's been my philosophy since cultural armor came out, and has served me well.

[Lickity]

I have done the same thing. Someone wanted me to make a run of Tae Ew Sheilds for them once, and I refused as I was in the business at the time. Another just recently wanted me to make a run of Velium Gemmed Weapons for the same purpose. I feel that I have payed dearly for my skill, and the people who want me to undermine my own market so that they can make money are in the wrong. In each of these cases I have offered to buy the components at the market value, but I refuse to ruin my own business.

[Saleani]

Not to rain on anyone's parade here, but my experience with getting high level smiths to help out my guild goes like this:

Over 18 months ago, I was in a guild that had been farming Hall of Testing, for close to 60 hours per week. The drop rates of chain were appalling (like maybe 1 piece in a 6 hour shift, involving around 40+ players). We were trapped on a treadmill, folks were quitting to join other guilds, and we needed to keep farming the place to keep outfitting recruits. Needless to say, the guild dropped to the point where we could no longer hunt HoT (also, every time we dropped a first brood dragon, at least 1 senior person quit the guild over the loot award decision). About that time, the drop rates of tae ew blood seemed to jump about 100 fold. So I convinced folks to head to CT for some blood farming. I found 2 smiths that were willing to help (they were in raiding guilds so I had to wait till they were done for the night). In 2 weeks we had outfitted every chain class with tae ew bp, tae ew legs, and every wis caster got a tae ew shield (the other parts were not considered unless a recipient really wanted one). Each evening, we had acquired more chain class gear than we had previously gathered in 2 weeks of solid HoT farming.

Some evenings I would hand the smith enough for 10 shields, or 10 bps. It would not surprise me if they thought I was selling the stuff, it would not surprise me if they actually noticed that the rangers and shamen in that guild were all turning green. What I did think was funny was that if a guildie approached the smith, they would be told no, but if the parts came through me, it was always yes. Everyone in the guild knew who the smiths were, and some folks were gracious enough to send thank you tells when they got their new stuffs.

Both of those smiths had made cultural armor for me in the past (one was human, the other barbarian). If I had cash, I would offer it to the smiths as tips, almost always, it was rejected. They knew that I was a tradeskiller.

[Unidin]

I spent about a week foraging with my druid to get enough materials to make about 30 haversack bags for a halfling that was skilling up on them. I gave her the foraged items and told her that she could keep as many of the bags as she wanted, and if she wanted to give any of them to me I would take them. I told her up front if she game me any of them they would be sold. She ended up keeping about 3/4 of em, and I got the rest. I didn't have to pay for things like the BDs or the threads. So she made a small profit, and I made about 30k from just foraging. She also got a couple skillups that she wanted.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is if you let your guildie know that he'd have to split some of the profits with you, you could work something out.

[Lickity]

When the Velium Gemmed Weapons first got unnerfed I made a deal with a KT flagged guildie that was similar to that. He got me Ore and Gems for the weapons, I supplied the velium, the subcomine components otherwise and the skill to make the weapons. We split the profits 50/50.